..//14Rob26\\..

We Now Offer 115 Mobile Downloads!!!

2008-09-19T18:14:00.001+01:00

New Downloads Add Today!

Creating unofficial downloads....

2008-09-16T18:30:00.011+01:00

We are now creating unofficial downloads for 'We Love Latics' so check out there blog, and our new downloads, by the way as you know our downloads show a link to our blog but some of the newer ones will show 'We Love Latics' s URL, this is only for some of them to help promote there blog. Keep downloading and don't forget to tell your friends. Our blog may not be updated for some time now as we have some new downloads to create, some other projects to work on and are generally busy, check back soon.

Busy

2008-08-25T03:49:00.001+01:00

We are very busy at the moment so the blog may not be update for a while, sorry everyone.

Windows Live Wave 3: Groups - More than just a stand-alone service

2008-08-17T09:26:00.001+01:00

When people have talked so far about Windows Live Groups, the premise has been that it will just be an upgrade to the existing MSN Groups, and something to compete with Facebook. User creates a group, group can then share files, create a blog, interact via online comments etc etc.

However this is somewhat short-sighted. Windows Live, is after all, about the interacting of service, and from what we’ve heard Groups is no exception. In order to fully appreciate where Microsoft is taking its social networking strategy, it helps to look at something that emerged a few years ago, the leaked MSN Wave 11 mockups. While most of what was shown has since been implemented, there is one critical piece that underpins the social networking scenario Microsoft envisioned – Circles.

Circles was an idea about how users could interact with a core group of friends, family, or other acquaintances. To share information with them, to stay in touch with their updates. In fact if Microsoft had launched Circles when it first emerged in public, Facebook et al could have been the ones playing catchup now. As it turned out, Microsoft never got around to launching Circles, until its reincarnation in Windows Live Wave 3, as part of Groups.

So what makes up Groups? Here’s how we see it shaping up:

Groups on Spaces: This is the area that has been talked about already, offering users a shared space on the Windows Live Group service. Key here is the “What’s New Feed” allowing all members of the group to see the updates and changes taking place.

Groups in Messenger: Here is perhaps where Groups will have the most immediate impact. Groups of Messenger contacts, able to keep in contact with one another through Group IM, and exposing access to features offered through other services; What’s New, new photos, shared files, the list goes on.

Groups on Skydrive: The logical choice when it comes to sharing files with your friends. This was one of the main components of the Circles mockups, and given the launch of Mesh, it will be interesting to see how much gets implemented in Skydrive.

What makes Groups such an interesting proposition is the benefits offered by Windows Live ID; granular permissions and single sign-on: allowing users to seamlessly switch between identities. Then there are the obvious benefits of using Groups in services such as Calendar and Favorites. Perhaps the most interesting implementations could be via Groups APIs, integrating some of these features into Facebook and other social networks. With the Windows Live Developer platform really starting to take hold, Microsoft needs to use this to kick-start its late entrance to the social networking party.

Update: First sighting of Groups in Messenger has been made.

New Look Due for Windows Live Messenger

2008-08-16T19:10:00.000+01:00

The upcoming Windows Live Messenger 9.0 will sport a revamped user interface based on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) graphical technology, according to published reports that include purported screenshots of the instant messaging software.

The latest beta of WLM 9.0, an upgrade of the most widely used IM client worldwide, lets users create multiuser chat rooms and share photos with one another, the blog Mess.be reported.

WLM 9.0 will also feature tighter integration with Microsoft's Zune media player, said the Ars Technica news site, which reposted the screenshots unearthed by Mess.be. The Messenger Stuff blog also posted an entry about WPF features and other new capabilities that it said are being added to WLM 9.0.

Microsoft has yet to announce a release date for WLM 9.0, which has been in beta since last fall.

The initial betas of the IM upgrade don't take much advantage of WPF, which is Windows Vista's underlying graphical subsystem and can also be downloaded and added onto Windows XP. The various reports indicate, though, that upcoming beta builds of WLM 9.0 will rely more heavily on WPF, which is designed to make complex multimedia development easier and to speed up image rendering.

A spokeswoman for Microsoft said via e-mail that the software vendor has "nothing to announce about future enhancements" to WLM at this point. But, she added, "there are a lot of exciting things happening in this space."

Formerly known as MSN Messenger, WLM had the most users among IM clients as of last December, according to data released earlier this year by comScore Inc. The market research firm's comScore Media Metrix unit said that about 228 million of the 385 million IM users in December were running WLM.

New Mobile Downloads

2008-08-16T18:33:00.001+01:00

We have added new content, it is now available online for you!

Retired Gates Predicts Software Revolution

2008-08-16T18:15:00.000+01:00

Bill Gates, chairman, co-founder and former head of Microsoft, predicts that continual expansion of Internet services will provoke a revolution in software development.

During a visit to Hong Kong, Gates attended a forum last week to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Microsoft Research Asia. The company's regional research lab, which was founded in 1998 in Beijing, has provided training for more than 2000 interns from universities in the region.

This was Gate's first official speech in public after he stepped down as Microsoft Chief Executive in July 2008 to move to a full-time philanthropist role at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

This digital icon discussed likely technology breakthroughs in the next decade with the presidents of three local universities -- Paul Chu, of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Lawrence Lau, of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Tsui Lap-chee of The University of Hong Kong.

Underestimated Changes

Gates told the 1600 academics, IT representative and students that software breakthroughs would approach faster than they imagined.

He said one significant innovation will be the Natural User Interface (NUI) which had been underestimated. In the future it will "encompass all the new interaction techniques", such as touch and speech. He predicted extensive application of NUI in the robotics field, so that future robots can "drive cars, pick things up and understand visual scenes".

"Breakthroughs in hardware are definitely happening, as are breakthroughs in software," Gates said.

Software-Driven World

The former Microsoft Chief maintained that programs will drive every part of human life, with television and the Internet likely to fuse together. He said future televisions could all connect to the Internet, perform search functions, and locate videos using voice recognition.

"The devices that will be software-driven won't stop at the personal computer, the full-screen device or the pocket-sized device, the phone. It will really be pervasive," Gates said.

Microsoft Research Asia is currently conducting research on such televisions, where couch potatoes will key in search words with their remote controls, and the TV will search related videos using speech recognition technology. Users will also be able to customize channels with the search function.

Gates stressed that the Internet TV will only be part of the enormous change brought by technology within the next decade. "...the frontiers of software are constantly changing and that's why this is an industry that's so exciting," he said.

Innovating for the Better

Gates also shared his views on technology as solutions to global problems with university leaders, and stressed that innovations can change the world. He gave the example of the personal computer, describing it as "the best tool mankind ever created" when connected to the Internet, and said that many biological advances are achieved with the help of computers.

Chinese University of Hong Kong president Lawrence Lau highlighted the importance of the Internet in terms of knowledge distribution. He said access to broadband was crucial to overcoming poverty.

Two other local university leaders, Paul Chu and Tsui Lap-chee, agreed that properly managed technologies can solve global issues such as genetic diseases and even the energy shortage.

This trip is Gate's first visit to Hong Kong in nine years. He had watched the Olympic Opening Ceremony before attending the forum in Hong Kong and meeting the city's Chief Executive Donald Tsang.

New Mobile Downloads

2008-08-10T19:48:00.001+01:00

We have added new content, it is now available online for you!

Faces of Millions

2008-07-16T19:32:00.001+01:00

Faces of Millions is a project which aims to create the biggest photo mosaic yet, that will be about 30x30ft big (approx. 10x10m or 3 stories high).
It will be made of about 300 usual size posters, which will have fingernail sized photos of YOU, YOUR FRIENDS and all the OTHER PEOPLE who take part (about a million of them).

We have participated so can you. Read more about this project.

It's nearly time for The Crate Escape

2008-07-13T21:31:00.001+01:00

December 5th it hits UK Cinema but what's it all about, well here at 14Rob26 we did some digging and went to find out.

So once again its staring...

Dodgeball star Ben Stiller as Alex (voice), Ali G aka Sacha Baron Cohen as Julien (voice), The Matrix Reloaded star Jada Pinkett Smith as Gloria (voice), Friends star David Schwimmer as Melman (voice), The Longest Yard star Chris Rock as Marty (voice), etc.

Released: 2008

Go to IMDb page

Information © IMDb.com

So what is it all about...

Well... still stranded on Madagascar, our fun little animated friends started to leave the island. All of a sudden, they crash land in the wilderness of Africa. Whilst there, Alex meets the rest of his family and begins to have trouble communicating with them after all of his time at the Central Park Zoo.

I guess it's time for a trailer...

Google launches Lively, virtual world sim

2008-07-09T07:37:00.001+01:00

A really bad news for Second Life: Google is launching a new service today called Lively, a browser based virtual world add-on that lets users create and customize avatars and worlds, interact with other users, and generally have a richer social interaction than is offered by GTalk today. Worlds can be embedded into web pages, although only Windows users on IE or Firefox can view them, after an add-on download and installation. Mac and Linux users will have to wait for now.

Google has created a number of sample rooms that can be copied and altered, or users can start from scratch and build their own world. Furniture and other items can be added and moved around. Avatars can talk to each other, do things like dance and shake hands, and manipulate objects (in a demo, my avatar was able to blow up drums of toxic waste by double clicking on them. Users can also, of course, chat with each other - GTalk is the underlying chat engine. This isn’t yet a full Second Life competitor. There’s no single world, for example, where users can move around. But it’s easy to see Google evolving this into a single online world. And then, of course, selling advertising into it.

12000 laptops lost every month in US airports

2008-07-08T07:35:00.001+01:00

According to the study commissioned by Dell, more than 12,000 laptop computers are lost in U.S. airports every week. That’s about 600,000 notebooks per year. What’s more, only 33 percent of the laptops found in airports are ever reclaimed. That’s not surprising if (as the survey found) 16 percent of business travelers said they would do nothing if they lost their laptops, while 58 percent said they’d contact their companies for advice before they did anything. Just 27 percent said they’d immediately retrace their steps and contact lost and found.

A question for those who said they would do nothing: what do you do when you show up to the big meeting sans laptop? Pretend to type on an invisible computer? Act like you’re suffering from amnesia? Seriously, who does “nothing” when they discover their laptop is missing? I know laptops are getting cheap, but this seems like a stunning lack of concern for the whereabouts of a machine worth several hundred dollars at least, and presumably storing important documents, valuable photos and so forth. Of course, Dell is using the startling findings to pitch its new laptop protection and data recovery services, so make of these findings what you will.

Sonic Unleashed

2008-07-07T22:23:00.001+01:00

What’s it about?

Sociopathic egghead Dr. Robotnik has unleashed a powerful beast from the centre of the planet, causing the seven continents to shatter. Sonic must retrieve the Chaos Emeralds to save the world, while dealing with the mighty sodding inconvenience of transforming into a mini werewolf hedgehog at night.

Coolest feature?

SEGA have opted for two inter-mingling gameplay modes, with 2D side-scrolling whizzing seamlessly into behind-the-hedgehog, third-person sections. And for the racers out there, Sonic will now be able to drift around corners and sidestep-strafe obstacles in his path. All at silly, dizzy speeds through real-world locations.

When can I buy it?

It’s out for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii in November.

Pioneer proudly pitches 400GB Blu-ray optical disc

2008-07-07T21:55:00.001+01:00

Pioneer has pressed what it claims is the world's first 16-layer optical disc. It's keeping mum about the medium's format, but it's telling that each data layer has the same capacity as a Blu-ray Disc.

With 16 layers and a per-layer capacity of 25GB, that's a staggering 400GB in total, plenty of room not only for all the episodes of a TV series, but all of its seasons too.

And the capacity's twice the 200GB disc TDK was touting a couple of years ago as one possible future for Blu-ray.

Pioneer's 16-layer BD: capacious

There's a catch: right now, the technology's read-only, so it's clearly destined for pre-recorded content.

However, Pioneer claimed it had licked the problem of interference from all the layers between the surface of the disc and the one the player's trying to read from. Pioneer said it applied an array of optical and signal processing techniques to create a "16-layer optical disc that can play back high-quality signals from every layer".

It's not just the layer data capacity that matches the Blu-ray spec - so do the optical specifications of the lens. The upshot, Pioneer said coyly, is that "it is possible to maintain compatibility between the new 16-layer optical disc and the BD discs".

And not only

is the disc Blu, it's green too: "The 16-layer optical disc technology, capable of storing much more data than the conventional discs on one disc, will greatly reduce the number of discs to be used and therefore contribute to the conservation of resources," Pioneer chirped.

Sony spin-off planning 2009 FED TV launch

2008-07-07T21:54:00.001+01:00

Sony affiliate plans to launch large Field Emission Display (FED) TVs next year, a move that could see the firm trump attempts by rivals to commercialise a similar next-generation telly type: Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display (SED).

Sony's FET arm could have 26in FED TVs out by next year

According to a report by Japan's Nikkei newspaper, an unnamed source has claimed that Field Emission Technologies (FET), of which Sony owns 37.8 per cent, plans to launch an industry-grade 26in FED TV at the end of 2009. A 60in commercial model could follow sometime later.

FEDs are only a couple of millimetres thick and generate images with an array of carbon nanotubes electron emitters. Each emitter is positioned right behind a phosphor dot which emits light when zapped with electrons. The particles are emitted by a process called field emission.

FEDs are claimed to have several benefits over the likes of LCD and plasma, not least an energy efficiency that's roughly twice that of LCD. Other benefits include FED’s ability to generate much crisper images than LCD can, along with better blacks. Because fewer components are required to display a picture, FED sets could be cheaper to produce.

Both Canon and Toshiba have already unsuccessfully tried to launch TVs based on SED, a close variant of FED. Like FED, SED uses an electron emitter for every pixel and places them all very close behind a phosphor-coated display panel. The

key difference is the way electrons are emitted.

Toshiba was due to launch its first Canon-developed SED screens in Q4 2007. But it was forced to delay the launch because it claimed Canon wasn’t able to provide SED panels to the original schedule.

Sony is currently in negotiations with Pioneer to buy its former plasma-panel production plant in Kagoshima, Japan. In March, Pioneer officially announced plans to can its plasma production after making a loss for the fourth year running.

It’s thought FET will produce

around 10,000 26in FED panels each year at the former Pioneer plant, with screens mostly sold into broadcasting and medical areas.

No PAYG 3G iPhone in UK until Christmas

2008-07-07T21:53:00.001+01:00

The Carphone Warehouse has announced that pay-as-you-go 3G iPhones will be available "in time for Christmas" - a rather longer wait than hopeful buyers were anticipating.

Carphone Warehouse has trumped O2’s PAYG 3G iPhone launch

CW released a bland statement today letting punters know that it’s started taking orders for the phone – if you’re willing to sign onto an O2 contract. However, a paragraph within the statement said: “The iPhone 3G will also be available on pay as you go at The Carphone Warehouse in time for the Christmas period.”

The retailer’s yet to confirm how much a PAYG 3G iPhone will set you back, but it has promised to publicise the details “closer to the time”.

Meanwhile, O2 has posted a message onto the PAYG iPhone section of its website stating that the “iPhone 3G for Pay & Go will be available later this year”.

CW's statement ties in with a story published by Register Hardware early in June reporting after reader was told by an O2 staffer not to expect the handset until Christmas.

O2’s yet to officially state how much

the PAYG 3G iPhone will cost. But unconfirmed reports have already claimed that O2 will price it at about £300 for the 8GB model and £360 (£182/€230) for the 16GB model. Others have said the price will be higher still.

US carrier AT&T has AT&T has already confirmed that a contract-free 8GB 3G iPhone will cost $599 (£301/€382) - exactly what the first version was priced at when it went on sale a year or so ago.

O2 starts 3G iPhone stampede - and runs away

2008-07-07T21:52:00.001+01:00

O2 today started taking pre-orders on its website for Apple's iPhone 3G - and stopped taking them again within minutes of opening the doors.

Customers were told by text message that new iPhones were available to existing customers who upgrade. But they were presented this morning with error messages on the O2 upgrade site after filling in forms and told to contact customer services by telephone.

"Which I did," said Reg reader Carol Dew, "only to be advised that they couldn't take telephone orders until Friday, and they were very sorry for the inconvenience, but they had 2000 other people just like me calling them this morning, and their managers had advised them that the site was overwhelmed. Because they didn't anticipate the demand. But when I asked how many iPhones were in stock, since I was afraid they'd run out before I could order mine, I was told that they'd asked customers to 'register their interest' on the website (did that; hence getting the text this morning). And that every time someone registered their interest, they ordered in an iPhone for them. Yet they didn't anticipate today's demand."

So, the courier won't be calling around on July 11 with the new iPhone. For now, you must content yourself with a gander at the tariffs. Start looking here.

UK customers have four plans to choose from, with prices ranging from £30 to £75 a month for the 8GB and 16GB models. So, for £30 a month, you get 75 minutes call time, 125 texts and "unlimited" Wi-Fi and data - and a phone that costs £99 for the 8GB version and £159 for the 16GB. The usual caveats apply about "excessive data charges": in other words don't use it as a modem for your PC. And make sure that you are not gouged on roaming charges when you step outside Blighty.

O2's starter tariff looks designed for a headline price - that no-one will take up. Step up to £35 a month and you get 600 mins and 500 texts in your plan. Go to £45 a month and grab a "free" 8GB iPhone 3G. Commit to a stonking £75 and O2 throws in the 16GB iPhone for free.

And yes, O2 is not selling contract-free iPhones. In the small print, it mutters about invalidating warranties if you unlock the phone. But you knew that already. A pay-as-you-go phone is in the works, to emerge some time this year.

Apple cuts price of MacBook Air by $500

2008-07-07T21:46:00.001+01:00

Apple Inc. has quietly reduced the price of its most expensive notebook by $500, cutting the cost of the upper-end MacBook Air to $2,598. The MacBook Air, which Apple launched in January to some fanfare, has been sold in two configurations since then: with a traditional 80GB magnetic platter hard drive and a 1.6-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, or with a 64GB solid-state drive and a 1.8-GHz CPU. Solid-state drives (SSD) are built from flash memory and, unlike hard drives, have no moving parts.

The MacBook Air with the solid-state drive is more expensive than the one with the hard drive, but several Apple-specific Web sites, including AppleInsider, noticed that Apple had dropped the price of the SSD-equipped model by 16% on Thursday, July 3. Prior to the price cut, the solid-state MacBook Air sold for $3,098. The less expensive hard-drive-equipped MacBook Air retained its $1,799 price tag, according to the Apple online store. The price cut came from changes on two of the MacBook Air options. Selecting the SSD now adds $599 to the price of the notebook, compared to $999 earlier. Also lowered was the 1.8-GHz processor option, from $300 extra to $200.

Random Vid

2008-07-07T16:58:00.000+01:00

Flawless Hamilton triumphant at sodden Silverstone

2008-07-06T23:02:00.001+01:00

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton gave his adoring fans exactly what they came to see at a sodden Silverstone on Sunday. A brilliant British Grand Prix victory in often treacherous conditions lifted him right back into contention for the world championship, on a day when Kimi Raikkonen failed to shine and Ferrari team mate Felipe Massa and BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica were the ones who came home pointless.
The race started on a damp track, with the promise of more rain to come. Hamilton touched wheels with pole-sitting team mate Heikki Kovalainen on lap one at Copse after making a terrific start, and edged ahead of him at Becketts on the fifth lap. Thereafter it was his race to lose, and the most crucial point came when both he and Raikkonen, an apparent threat at this stage, pitted on the 21st lap. But where McLaren gave their man another set of standard wet-weather Bridgestones, Ferrari kept theirs on the same set. Hamilton rocketed away from the red car, and Raikkonen slipped steadily down the order as strong mid-race performances from Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica put BMW Sauber into the frame for podium finishes.
Heavy rain in the middle of the race created further havoc, however, as driver after driver slipped and slid off the road. This was where clever strategic thinking by Ross Brawn at Honda saw the team risk bringing in both Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button for extreme wet tyres on the 35th lap. The Brazilian made great use of them and was able to push up into second place until a late switch back to intermediates. As Heidfeld clung on to a good second place, after making the right call for fresh intermediates at his first stop, Barrichello recovered to a podium finish that was a great boost to the Japanese team.
Behind them, Raikkonen finally fought his way out of a late-race battle with Renault’s Fernando Alonso and Kovalainen to finish fourth.
That means that Hamilton, Massa and Raikkonen now lead the world championship fight with 48 points apiece, with Kubica fourth on 46!
Kovalainen fought his way past Alonso in the closing stages for fifth, as Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima and Toyota’s Jarno Trulli closed in on them. On the last lap the Japanese racer’s attempts to pass the Spaniard dropped him a place, as Trulli saw an opening and pounced.
Nico Rosberg was ninth after a terrible race, in which he started from the pit lane and later damaged yet another nose and front wing after rear-ending Timo Glock’s Toyota. Mark Webber also had a terrible day, spinning on the opening lap after starting from the front row. He spun several more times on his way to 10th, ahead of Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais, Glock and Massa. All of them spun at least once, with Massa talking the award for the most spins (around six) and the dizziest driver by the end.
The extreme wet tyres did not turn the trick for Button, who ended his day off the road in the second Honda, as did Renault’s Nelson Piquet after a decent run. Both Force Indias also spun out of contention. And Sebastian Vettel’s mistake on the first lap helped to put David Coulthard out of his last British Grand Prix.
“That,” Hamilton said afterwards, “was the toughest win of my career, but definitely the best.”

2010: the 5TB 3.5in HDD cometh

2008-07-06T22:56:00.001+01:00

Hitachi has pledged to release a 5TB 3.5in hard drive within two years, and it claims two of the drives will boast enough capacity to store everything in your brain.

According to a report by Nikkei Net, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies will use Current-Perpendicular-to-Plane Giant Magnetoresistance (CPP-GMR) magnetc read heads to achieve the aim. This, the firm claims, will allow its drives to store 1TB of data in every square inch of the recording surface.

Hitachi’s announcement is a step on from a claim it made back in October 2007 that 4TB of storage could become a reality by 2011.

It’s worth noting though that Hitachi’s not the first storage company to promise super-capacity HDDs. Back in August 2007, rival Fujitsu announced that 2.5in disks were its proposed ‘patterned medium’ for such compact storage. It too plans to have commercial models available by 2010.

Fujitsu's approach uses anodised aluminium to create a pattern of "nanoholes", each holding a portion of magnetic material used to store a single bit of data. The aluminium-oxide surrounding these so-called 'nanoholes' helps magnetically insulate each bit from all the others, preventing one from affecting another, which might lead to data corruption.

Nonetheless, Dr Yoshihiro Shiroishi from Hitachi has claimed that two of its 5TB will together “provide the same storage capacity as the human brain”.

So, if your memory’s not great, then just buy a couple of 5TB drives from Hitachi and download all your thoughts and memories onto them, before wiping the slate clean and staring afresh with another 10TB of brain capacity.

3 New Mobile Downloads

2008-07-06T22:39:00.001+01:00

BABE
This K800 wallpaper with was published on Jul-06-2008 in the People category by 14rob26 The size is 16.3 kilobytes, and can be downloaded directly to your mobile device by directing your phones wap browser to wap.lasyk.net and entering 805120867 as the Wap ID.

!-Download Now-!

Hayden Panettiere
This K800 wallpaper with was published on Jul-06-2008 in the Celebrities category by 14rob26 The size is 21.98 kilobytes, and can be downloaded directly to your mobile device by directing your phones wap browser to wap.lasyk.net and entering 967120320 as the Wap ID.
!-Download Now-!

Hayden Panettiere
This K800 wallpaper was published on Jul-06-2008 in the Celebrities category by 14rob26 The size is 25.1 kilobytes, and can be downloaded directly to your mobile device by directing your phones wap browser to wap.lasyk.net and entering 180120319 as the Wap ID. !-Download Now-!

Polaroid launches a wallet-sized printer that prints your mobile phone snaps in seconds

2008-07-03T15:54:00.000+01:00

Amateur photographers will be able to print off their mobile

phone pictures instantly thanks to a relaunch of Polaroid photo technology.

The company has relaunched for the digital age with a miniature printer designed to unlock images from mobile phones.
The Polaroid PoGo uses thermal printing technology instead of ink and produces business card-sized colour photos in 60 seconds.

The 8oz (227g) printer connects to digital cameras as well as phones by the USB port or Bluetooth wireless.

The device goes on sale in the UK tomorrow for £99, with each sheet of paper costing about 30p.

Polaroid has touted the device as its biggest innovation since the commercial launch of instant film in 1948.

Tom Petters, chairman and owner of Polaroid, said: 'Dr Edwin Land, the founder of Polaroid, reinvented this company many times through its 70-year history, from polarised lenses to eyewear to the iconic instant camera.

'With the Polaroid PoGo we're reinventing the magic of instant printed pictures for the 21st century.'

Polaroid announced earlier this year that it would no longer be making the film used in the instant camera after the digital age left almost no market. The company stopped making the instant cameras the year before.

The photography firm was founded in 1937, making polarised lenses for the science world and introducing its first instant camera in 1948.

Polaroid peaked in popularity in 1991 when its sales - mainly instant cameras and film - hit £1.5billion.

Each polaroid print will cost 30p

It's back to the Eighties as parents are set to scramble for Rubik's Cube this Christmas

2008-07-02T21:28:00.000+01:00

The Rubik's Cube will top the Christmas bestsellers list once again - more than 25 years after its launch, Woolworths predicted yesterday.

The store chain put the puzzle at number one in its list of top ten toys for this December, despite it being invented in 1974 and launched in 1980.

The cube is experiencing a revival following the popularity of tutorials on the website YouTube and 'speed cubing', where players compete to be the first to match the colours.

Mind-bending: The Rubik's Cube is said to be the world's all-time bestselling toy

Other 1980s classics are also tipped to be top sellers this Christmas, with toys based on an animated Star Wars film out later this year, and a toy whip inspired by the recent Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie.

• Here is the Woolworths list of predicted top 10 toys for Christmas 2008, in no particular order:

Rubik's Cube, £9.99

Star Wars Clone Wars Lego, from £34.99

Meebas, £16.99

Ben 10 Deluxe Omnitrix, £15.99

High School Musical Sing Together Dolls, £20.99

Bakugan Battle Arena, £29.99

Leapfrog Tag, £39.99

In The Night Garden Upsy Daisy In Her Bed, £34.99

Indiana Jones Whip, £19.99

Catcha Beast, £19.99

9/11 hero dog to be cloned

2008-07-02T18:12:00.001+01:00

A HERO dog that sniffed out survivors from the rubble of the World Trade Centre after the 9/11 disaster in New York is going to get cloned.

Trakr, a German Shepherd, owned by James Symington, will be cloned by a company based in California called BioArts International.

Competition

The lab picked the dog as the most "clone-worthy" canine in a competition offering an owner a free chance to replicate their pet.

The animal helped rescuers to find survivors from under the rubble of the World Trade Centre after the 2001 terror strikes.

BioArts said it would transport a sample of Trakr's DNA to the South Korean lab of its partner, the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, and the clone could be ready by the end of this year.

British Grand Prix preview

2008-07-02T17:51:00.001+01:00

LEWIS HAMILTON will be Britain's big hope at Silverstone this weekend.

The McLaren ace is fourth in the Formula One world championship going into Sunday's race.

And he will be looking to close the gap on Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who leads ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and BMW's Robert Kubica.

Hamilton endured a nightmare French Grand Prix two weeks ago.

He was deducted ten places on the grid before receiving a drive-through penalty during the race.

But the Stevenage racer will be roared on by a capacity home crowd at Silverstone this time out.

Fellow Brits Jenson Button, David Coulthard and Anthony Davidson will also be looking to build on their efforts so far this season.

iPhone 3G is coming July 11.

2008-07-01T20:49:00.001+01:00

iPhone 3G is coming July 11.

MCE Offers 6x Internal Blu-ray Drive for Macs

2008-07-01T20:44:00.001+01:00

MCE Technologies has introduced its 6X Blu-ray Recordable Drive for Macs. It's natively compatible with Mac OS X 10.5.2 or later and works inside the Mac Pro and Power Mac. It's priced starting at US$499.

While Macs can support Blu-ray Disc drives as data drives, the Mac doesn't yet ship with a Blu-ray Disc drive option -- "SuperDrives" capable of burning DVDs are still standard issue on Apple's pro models. Blu-ray Disc is a High Definition (HD) optical drive standard that can store much more data per disc -- up to 50GB on dual-layer BD-R media.

The drive can record data to Blu-ray, DVD and CD media directly from the Finder without needing additional software. If you want to burn Blu-ray movies, you'll need Roxio's Toast 9 Titanium and HD/BD Plug-in, which MCE bundles for an extra $100. MCE also provides software to enable Boot Camp-equipped Mac Pros also running Windows XP or later to play back Blu-ray and HD DVD movies (movie playback is not currently supported on the Mac).

At 6X, the drive can burn single-layer BD-R media at 27MB/sec. It burns dual-layer BD-R media at 4x (18MB/sec), and BD-RE discs at 2X (9MB/sec). It's also capable of recording DVD±R media at up to 16X (22MB/sec), DVD±R DL at 4X, DVD+RW and 8X, DVD-RW at up to 6X, DVD-RAM at 5X, CD-R at up to 40X (6MB/sec) and CD-RW at up to 24X.

MCE also offers a bundle including Adobe Premier Pro CS3 with Encore for $1,295.

C4 chat plan for Moyles

2008-07-01T17:53:00.001+01:00

WATCH out ! . . Chris Moyles is coming to a screen near you.

The Radio 1 DJ has struck a deal with Channel 4 to record a pilot for a new show.

It’s billed as a cross between a pub quiz and chat show.

Sounds a bit like one of Chris Evans’ old staples, but we will see . . .

Tubby Moyles, 34, has impressed telly bigwigs during his stint hosting Big Brother’s Big Mouth.

He’s already got celeb pals including Richard and Judy to take part.

A source said: “Chris is doing a pilot. We’re going to film it and then take a view on it.”

More Xbox 360 Price Drops?

2008-07-01T17:48:00.001+01:00

If you are thinking of buying an Xbox 360 you may want to wait a couple weeks. There are reports Microsoft is about to drop the price of the Xbox 360. The Hollywood Reporter is citing an anonymous source who says that the Xbox 360 will knock $50 off the price tag of its 20GB model from $349 to $299.

If the rumors are true, the new price point would make the Xbox $100 cheaper than Playstation 3's cheapest model, and just $50 more than the Nintendo Wii. The Xbox price drop also comes just weeks before the video game world descends on Los Angeles for the E3 Expo in mid-July. This would also be the second time Microsoft dropped the price of the Xbox since the console's launch in 2005. At the time, the price cut came just before Halo 3 (slide show) hit the shelves, but according to many reports the latest price drop does not coincide with an anticipated release.

An Xbox 360 price drop is not a complete surprise. In fact, experts have been predicting price cut for several months; however, until now no one had any idea when that might occur. The latest rumors surfaced last week after the video game blogs Joystiq and Kotaku posted photos of a Kmart flyer with the new price point after they had been uploaded to High Def Digest by an anonymous user.

Nokia Adds Warner Music to Upcoming Service

2008-07-01T17:46:00.001+01:00

Nokia continues to prepare for the launch of its Comes With Music service, signing a deal with Warner Music on Tuesday.

Comes With Music was first announced in December, and will package a mobile phone with a year of unlimited access to music. When the year is over users will be able to keep their downloaded songs.

It's expected to launch in the second half of 2008 on a range of Nokia devices in selected territories, according to Nokia.

The company has so far signed distribution deals with Universal and Sony, which means that only EMI is missing for Nokia to have all four major record companies on board.

"We set out to create the music experience that people are telling us they are looking for -- all the music they want in the form of unlimited downloads to their mobile device and PC," said Anssi Vanjoki, executive vice president and general manager of Nokia's new markets unit.

Edgar Bronfman Jr., Warner Music's chairman and CEO, calls it the first global initiative to fundamentally align the interests of music companies with telecommunications companies.

But what Bronfman and other record company executives stand to make from the arrangement remains a closely guarded secret. The Finnish phone giant isn't commenting on the financial details of the deals with the record companies, according to a spokesman.

In April reports surfaced that it would pay up to $35 for every phone incorporating Comes With Music, but Nokia said the reports were just speculation.

As part of the deal, content from Warner Music will also be sold through Nokia's Music stores, which currently operate in Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden and the U.K.

AMD rolls out line-leading four-core Phenom

2008-07-01T17:43:00.001+01:00

AMD has launched a trio of quad-core Phenom X4 processors today, including a new top-of-the-line part, the 2.6GHz 9950.

The other two are lesser parts, but AMD's pitching their "energy efficiency", particularly when lined up against Intel quad-core CPUs.

The 9150e and 9350e are clocked, respectively, at 1.8GHz and 2.0GHz. AMD said they draw no more than 65W - less than the 95W that the Core 2 Quad line members each consume.

That said, the 9950 consumes a whopping 140W, which is more than even the top-of-the-range 2.83GHz Core 2 Quad Q9550.

AMD is pricing the 9150e at $175 and the 9350e at $195 - when sold in batches of 1000 processors - and was quick to point out that Intel doesn't have a quad-core that costs less than $200.

Joining the two new AMD CPUs si the $235 9950. All three are fabbed at 65nm and contain 2MB of shared L3 cache and 512KB of L2 per core. They can connect directly to DDR 2 memory clocked at up to 1066MHz.

Boffins invent 42GB DVD

2008-07-01T12:59:00.000+01:00

Blank DVDs are a cheaper storage option than Blu-ray, but the HD format has greater capacity. However, Japanese storage scientists claim to have invented a method for storing up to 42GB onto a single DVD.

Researchers from the Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, based in Japan’s Tohoku University, have – according to Google’s translation of a document released by the university department – discovered a way to multiply the amount of data stored on a DVD. The group also claims to be able to replicate the method for CDs.

Essentially, the team states that by changing the shape of the data-storage pits from having a flat bottom to one that's a V shape, each pit will be able to hold more data. Changing the horizontal orientation of the tip of the valley, alters the way light is reflected by the pit. As a result, pits no longer represent binary 1s and 0s, but a range of values, effectively allowing each to record a byte rather than a bit.

The upshot: individual discs could hold up to 42GB of data.

But before you go running off to the stationery store, it’s worth noting that the technology is essentially useless. That’s because current DVD machines aren’t designed to write or read disc data in such a way, so you'll need new hardware. And if you're buying new kit, why not get a Blu-ray drive and be done with it?

Dual-layer Blu-ray Discs, although expensive, can already hold 50GB of data. And one retailer’s already punting a Blu-ray disc that it’s claimed will retain 25GB of data for up to 200 years.

So, whilst the Tohoku University researchers' idea may hold some merit, it’s probably a case of too little, too late. Unless they adapt it for blue-laser discs, of course...

Mobile firms hit roaming deadline

2008-07-01T08:43:00.000+01:00

Mobile phone firms have reached a deadline to cut the price customers are charged for sending text messages in member countries of the European Union.

The price of using data on phones while abroad - including internet access - must also be slashed, the EU has said.

Failure by the companies to reach an agreement may see legislation brought in that would force them to change the way they charge customers, the EU says.

Details of whether or not a deal has been reached are due later.

EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding is not expecting the firms to have agreed to sufficiently lower their roaming charges.

Last week, the European Commission unveiled plans to lower the cost of mobile phone calls by reducing the fees operators charge each other for using their networks.

Europe's telecoms watchdog published guidelines for laws to harmonise call termination fees across the EU by 2011.

Currently, 27 national authorities regulate fees charged by an operator for handling calls from another.

Brussels said consumers ended up losing out because of variations in cross-border fees.

Operators have until 2011 to abide by the new regulations, which the commission estimated would make calls 70% cheaper.

MTV and EA officially reveal Rock Band 2

2008-07-01T03:53:00.000+01:00

There’s nothing quite so rock and roll as a reunion tour, a fact underlined by today’s announcement of Rock Band 2, which will see MTV Games and Harmonix once again team up with Electronic Arts to put toy instruments and games on shelves across the nation. However, unlike last year’s series debut, Rock Band 2 will be very selective about which shelves it appears on. The game will debut on the Xbox 360 in September, and after a North American “exclusive launch window,” it will find its way to additional unspecified platforms by year’s end. With this year’s installment of Activision’s rival rocker Guitar Hero going head-to-head with the full four-piece band concept, Rock Band 2 is making a few upgrades of its own. First and foremost among the details revealed today is that the sequel will be backward compatible with the original Rock Band’s downloadable content, with no need to repurchase or redownload it to the system.

That makes for a sizeable potential Rock Band 2 library right off the bat, given that the Rock Band music store currently has more than 200 songs available, which have garnered some 15 million paid downloads since the game launched in November. Furthermore, Harmonix will be offering “new and improved” drum and guitar controllers with new features and designs, “all fully compatible with original Rock Band instruments.” The game’s tracklist will consist entirely of master recordings, and Harmonix is also promising new online modes with a greater emphasis on the Rock Band community’s social aspects. More details about Rock Band 2 will be made public at this year’s E3 Media & Business Summit.

Quantum of Solace Trailer

2008-06-30T22:32:00.003+01:00

Sony has released the teaser trailer for the latest James Bond film, Quantum Of Solace. The teaser will be attached to Hancock, which hits theaters later this week. Filled with flashes of Paul Greengrass/Bourne-style action sequences, fast cars, and hot women, what more could you ask for? It looks totally bad ass. Tell me what you think in the comments below.

Quantum of Solace continues the high octane adventures of James Bond (DANIEL CRAIG) in CASINO ROYALE.

Betrayed by Vesper, the woman he loved, 007 fights the urge to make his latest mission personal. Pursuing his determination to uncover the truth, Bond and M (JUDI DENCH) interrogate Mr White (JESPER CHRISTENSEN) who reveals the organization which blackmailed Vesper is far more complex and dangerous than anyone had imagined.

Forensic intelligence links an Mi6 traitor to a bank account in

Released: 2008

Go to IMDb page

Information © IMDb.com

Haiti where a case of mistaken identity introduces Bond to the beautiful but feisty Camille (OLGA KURYLENKO), a woman who has her own vendetta. Camille leads Bond straight to Dominic Greene (MATHIEU AMALRIC), a ruthless business man and major force within the mysterious organization.

On a mission that leads him to Austria, Italy and South America, Bond discovers that Greene, conspiring to take total control of one of the world’s most important natural resources, is forging a deal with the exiled General Medrano (JOAQUIN COSIO). Using his associates in the organization, and manipulating his powerful contacts within the CIA and the British government, Greene promises to overthrow the existing regime in a Latin American country, giving the General control of the country in exchange for a seemingly barren piece of land.

In a minefield of treachery, murder and deceit, Bond allies with old friends in a battle to uncover the truth. As he gets closer to finding the man responsible for the betrayal of Vesper, 007 must keep one step ahead of the CIA, the terrorists and even M, to unravel Greene’s sinister plan and stop his organisation.

Quantum of Solace hits theaters on November 7th 2008.

Family Guy creator's sellout to Google almost complete

2008-06-30T21:20:00.000+01:00

Google is revealing new details on the recruitment of Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane to attract prime-time television advertising dollars to web-only video content.

In September, the search giant plans to roll out a series of animated clips funded by its AdSense network called "Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy," according to the New York Times.

The story of a MacFarlene/Google advertising matchup has been swimming around the 'net for about a year — so the Gotham rag is a bit late to the punch. But it has gathered up some details on the pact which are interesting.

The original video shorts will serve as a flagship for the Google Content Network, which has until now has only experimented with in-stream video ads. Google's plan for securing massive advertising figures for video content is to bring the content to the user, rather than the other way around.

Cavalcade is described to The Times as "animated versions of the one-frame cartoons you might see in The New Yorker, only edgier." So, er, the bar has been set pretty low.

The shorts will be embedded on thousands of independent web sites frequented by MacFarlane's target audience (young men under 30) as free, ad-supported streams.

The series will be funded by advertising put into the feed via a mix of pre-roll ads, video banners, and "brought to you by..." messages prefacing the clips, according to The Times. MacFarlane will also offer to animate original commercials for a more substantial fee.

Google and MacFarlane aren't saying which advertisers are currently onboard with the idea, although they claim several deals mark the largest AdSense buys ever.

“What is exciting is that this is a way to monetize the Internet immediately. Instead of creating a Web site and hoping Seth’s fans find it, we are going to push the content to where people are already at,” said Karl Austen, a lawyer who worked on the deal, speaking to The Times.

MacFarlane has already created 50 "episodes" for the campaign, which run about two minutes each. So that's a clip with at least 1/3 of the time dedicated to advertising if it uses a pre-roll commercial slot. Perhaps a bit tedious for an audience — but easy money in the bank for MacFarlane. ®

OOXML Projects Bolster Microsoft's Interoperability Efforts

2008-06-30T19:43:00.001+01:00

Microsoft on Monday unveiled projects to improve data portability between Office 2007 and other document file formats, including the design of a new translator for exchanging OOXML (Office Open XML) and HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) documents.

The company also posted the 1.0 version of technical documentation for protocols in Office and other software that enable those applications to interact with third-party programs.

The moves are part of a companywide commitment, unveiled in February, to foster interoperability, an initiative launched under pressure from an ongoing antitrust case in the European Union and competition from Linux and open-source software.

On Monday Microsoft also outlined some efforts it's been making to work in the community to help third parties develop interoperable technologies and promote data portability between its products and others, notably between its controversial OOXML file format and other formats for exchanging documents.

For example, the company is working on a new translator to read from documents in the Open XML file format to HTML. The company has posted information about the project on its Codeplex site.

OOXML is the XML-based document format in Office 2007. The ISO (International Organization for Standardization) recently approved it as an international standard in a vote that is still being contested by some countries that took part in the decision.

Microsoft has said it will support a rival file format and ISO standard, ODF (OpenDocument Format), in Office 2007 in a service pack to be released early next year. It has slated support for OOXML in Office for the next version of Office, code-named Office 14, but no official release date has been set for that product. Many expect it will be released next year as well, however.

In another data-portability effort, Microsoft is working with Beihang University in Beijing to develop translators between Uniform Office Format (UOF), an open standard in China for office documents, and Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint so users have more options to open and save UOF documents in Microsoft Office 2007 and 2003.

Also on Codeplex is information about a project to develop PowerTools PowerShell commands for OpenXML to enable IT managers to perform document management tasks. PowerShell is a command-line shell and task-based scripting technology for Windows Server that provides control and automation of system administration tasks.

As part of its efforts to post information about connection protocols for its software, Microsoft also posted online Version 1.0 of technology documentation for protocols built into Office 2007, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. Nearly 5,000 pages of new technical documentation for the Office binary file formats -- doc, .xls, .xlsb and .ppt -- for Word, Excel and PowerPoint also went up online.

Microsoft posted a preview of some of the documentation in April to receive feedback from the community about it. Monday's documents are the company's final version of that documentation.

Microsoft has limped toward a more open development and data-exchange policy for some time. However, repeated fines from the EU for not complying with an antitrust settlement and increased competitive pressure from open-source software and Linux pressured the company to launch February's formal interoperability and expansive technical-documentation effort.

Who's Who: Robert Carlyle tipped to replace Time Lord David Tennant

2008-06-30T17:58:00.000+01:00

New Who? Robert Carlyle (left) is tipped to replace David Tennant as the 11th Time Lord

There is wide speculation Tennant will step down before the start of the BBC's fifth series in 2010 - but he has refused to confirm the rumours.

However, viewers who watched him recovering from a Dalek attack over the weekend saw him begin what appeared to be his cyclical regeneration process.

The final of the fourth series is set to air this Saturday, with the plot line remaining a closely guarded secret.

A spokeswoman for the series said: 'There's a limited amount of information on the website about the final episode, but it's fair to say we want to keep it quiet. In fact, we want to keep it as secret as possible.

Battle: Dr Who's old enemy, the Daleks

'We put a block on sending out preview tapes so no-one could find out how it ended. We even chopped off the last few minutes of the tapes for the 12th episode so there would be no clues.'

Bookmaker William Hill is offering odds of 2-1 for Carlyle, with a spokesperson adding: 'We get lots of calls from Dr Who enthusiasts who want to put bets on the next Time Lord.

'Robert Carlyle is currently the favourite but it changes all the time.'

For his part, Carlyle hasn't ruled out playing the 11th Doctor, saying: 'Would I do it? Possibly.'

Under attack: The penultimate episode, called The Stolen Earth, was watched by 7.4 million people on Saturday

Trainspotting star Robert Carlyle has emerged as the favourite to take over from David Tennant as the new Doctor Who.

While Jason Statham, Alan Davies and the Cold Feet star James Nesbitt have also been tipped to step into the Time Lord's shoes, Carlyle is the new frontrunner, according to bookmakers.

Anyone Herr an England fan?

2008-06-30T16:53:00.001+01:00

IT was a lonely place to be an England fan.

Decked out in my red 1966 shirt and draped in a St George flag, I sat surrounded by a baying horde of German fans.

Even as I took my seat, one Herr, his face daubed yellow, black and red, sniggered: “The last place I expected to see an England fan — or your team — is at a major final!”

We're in for 2010

2008-06-30T16:50:00.001+01:00

SEPP BLATTER has dropped a hint that England might host the next World Cup.

South Africa are due to stage the tournament in two years but security fears have forced FIFA to look for possible alternatives.

And that could open the door for the FA — who are preparing to bid for the 2018 finals.

FIFA chief Blatter said: “I’d be a very negligent president if I hadn’t put away in a drawer somewhere a Plan B.

“If we had to activate the plan, we’d take our decision after the Confederations Cup in South Africa next year.”

Paleaaesina gets community service

2008-06-30T15:38:00.000+01:00

Wigan rugby league star Iafeta Paleaaesina has been ordered to carry out 200 hours community service after admitting breaking a man's jaw.

The 26-year-old Wigan Warriors player had faced a jail sentence for the savage blow but a judge instead ordered him to carry out the unpaid work.
Paleaaesina, a prop forward, who had admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm on bus driver James Campbell was ordered to pay £250 towards prosecution costs and also pay his own defence costs.
Paleaaesina was arrested following the incident which took place at Wigan North Western railway station in the early hours of October 6, last year.
He broke Mr Campbell's jaw with a single blow and footage of the the incident, which was caught on CCTV cameras, was shown to the court when he pleaded guilty.
Paleaaesina has no previous convictions. His barrister said that he had been provoked into the blow after being repeatedly goaded by remarks by Mr Campbell, who had perhaps drunk too much, and which went too far.
"He is extremely sorry for what he did and the injury caused," said defence barrister Paul Becker.

iPhone will ship in green packaging

2008-06-30T14:21:00.000+01:00

Apple's new iPhone 3G will be shipped on July 11 in a potato starch paper tray. Apple placed an order with Dutch company PaperFoam, which also makes packages for Motorola.

The company confirmed this today to Dutch blog Bright. According to CEO Hans Arentsen, Apple ordered "millions of paperfoam packages" for its new 3G iPhone.

The company was established in 1998 in the Dutch rural town of Barneveld - best known for its poultry farming and egg production - with the idea to make products using potato starch as an important ingredient. Once the injection molding technology was fine-tuned, the first commercial products came on line. By 2004, more than 150 million PaperFoam trays were being produced.

The first mainstream products were CD and DVD trays. Later PaperFoam produced trays for the first generation iPod nano and iPod video.

Arentsen doesn't want to reveal too many details, but says the iPhone will be delivered in a cardboard box with a starch tray (the inner part of the box), which is fully recyclable. The company claims a carbon footprint reduction of 90 per cent compared to plastic. The product consists of 100 per cent natural resource, either potato starch or Tapioca starch.

In the past, Apple has often been criticised by Greenpeace for using Brominated Fire Retardants (BFRs) and Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) in its products. Last year, Apple CEO Steve Jobs promised a greener Apple. ®

Japanese girls taught English by Nintendo DS

2008-06-30T13:34:00.000+01:00

apanese teachers might feel a little uneasy about their job security, as one of the country’s schools has begun trialling Nintendo’s DS console as a way of teaching kids to read and write English.

According to a report by Reuters, Japan's education ministry allows schools to decide on which teaching tools to use, whether it’s pencils and textbooks, or interactive games consoles.

The Tokyo Joshi Gakuen all-girls school opted for the DS and has been using the console in classrooms since May, as part of a one-year trial. Students use the console primarily for English vocabulary, penmanship and audio comprehension.

Junko Tatsumi, Vice Principal at the school, said that students are “really concentrating and have fun in gaining skills such as spelling".

The school clearly still has reservations about potential ‘abuse’ of the console’s features outside of English lessons. The vice principal added that once English lessons have ended, “students cannot play DS games outside - all consoles and software are collected" before home-time.

US students are more interested in listening to music during class though, it seems. Since February, around one in every 100 students at the Fort Summer High School, New Mexico have been encouraged to watch educational videos and listen to lectures on Zune players donated by Microsoft.

Almost all content is either created or recommended by the school’s teachers, with students encouraged to plug-in during class hours and on journeys to and from home. The trial aims to discover if such devices could eventually be incorporated into everyday education.

MySpace Users Struggle to Overcome Cybervandalism

2008-06-30T09:00:00.000+01:00

One of the first social networking upstarts, MySpace, is facing continuing security problems that threaten to spoil many of the innovative features that make the site useful.

Hackers, spammers and Internet malcontents have turned many of the "group" sites, which are dedicated to interests such as home beer brewing, animal welfare and gay rights issues, into cyber-graffiti walls, filled with offensive comments and photographs.

Those trashing the group profiles are known as trolls, who delight in making a mess and try to one-up each another with aggressive vandalism. They post taunting videos on YouTube.com, egging each other on and making real-world threats.

It has left many MySpace users struggling to maintain order on their groups. They allege that MySpace has been lax in fixing several well-known glitches that persist on the site despite repeated efforts to contact security administrators. MySpace, which would not grant interviews for this story, contends it has beefed up its security department and does its best to patrol the site for misbehavior.

"Over the last two years, I have notified MySpace not only of the problems but given them possible solutions as well, but they have only responded with a thank you, but there never has been any result," said Corey Scott-Walton, of Sacramento, California, who runs a group for craft-beer enthusiasts.

Scott-Walton is one of several MySpace users who became fed-up with trolls and created their own tools for combating abuse.

One of the problems is a glitch that allows vandals to post comments on a group even when they aren't an approved member. Usually, a moderator must approve new people who join a group.

That glitch opens a door to two more. Another is "bombing," where dozens of empty comments can be posted in the group's discussion area using an automated tool. The boxes push down the real comments and create hundreds of empty comment pages, effectively ruining a conversation. Another problem is "pinning" where a new topic on a discussion thread can be pinned on any forum.

Even if the account of the vandal has been deleted, the offending posts are sort of halfway deleted, with no comments visible but page after page of blank space. Scott-Walton wrote a tool in Visual Basic called "Thread Cleaning" that allows moderators to delete those posts.

MySpace's terms of service forbid use of automated tools and scripts, but users say they've been left with no choice.

Another MySpace user who is a Web developer in Connecticut created a tool that will check his group every 20 seconds for spam and delete it. The Web developer, who did not want to be identified for fear of harassment, said he has used the "report abuse" feature hundreds of times.

"I've found that the more people that report an [abusive] account, the faster MySpace makes it go away," he said.

Trolls will often create hundreds of "sock-puppet" profiles that are used merely to harass other users. Once the particular profile has been shut down by MySpace, the troll will simply use another one to continue attacks.

Another moderator who runs a group concerning religion created a tool to "unpin" offensive topics. He said he has had sporadic contact with MySpace security officials but not been satisfied. "This admin has made a ton of empty promises," he said. "I feel like they're not doing anything to try and halt this harassment problem."

That moderator said he's created a fifth group profile now after hackers found a way to delete his other ones. He too fears harassment outside MySpace: "I don't include any friends or family on my site for their safety."

An unofficial group for followers of the U.S. Democratic Party has been hard hit, according to its moderator, who also did not want to be identified. Moving to another social networking platform isn't an option: "We already have a group of over 80,000 members," he said. "There's been such an investment in building this group up, I'd have a hard time just ditching it to start a new one."

MySpace often relies heavily on users to do the heavy lifting in reporting abusive material, said Caroline Dangson, research analyst for new media and entertainment at IDC.

"So far, we have seen MySpace do very little to address the issues of trolling," Dangson said. "Ultimately, it is in MySpace's best interest to find or develop technology that will block this type of abuse, or the social networking site will eventually lose users, maybe even groups of users, as well as advertisers who pay the bills."

The group moderators have several security suggestions for MySpace: First, fix the glitches. Second, implement flooding controls, which would limit the number of postings a person can make within a specific time period. Scott-Walton said he has also found another problem involving PHP scripts that could potentially be used to track users to a geographic region or exploit security vulnerabilities on a PC.

As far as the trolls, a few of the MySpace miscreants haven't done much to stay anonymous. The MySpace Democrats' moderator said he filed a report with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation about a month ago after tracing the attacks to a quite surprising perpetrator: a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University. Since then, the attacks have subsided, he said.

Another well-known troll has spammed naked photos of himself on profiles, while consistently posting video rants against those who cross him on YouTube. "It's pathetic, really," the MySpace Democrats moderator said. "You really have to wonder about the sanity of a guy who would troll with naked pictures of himself."

There was success in stopping one prolific troll known as "The Punisher" after the teenager left too many bits of personal information scattered around the Internet, said Chris Boyd, security research manager for Facetime Communications, who has extensively researched MySpace abuses. A call to the youth's high school principal prompted the attacks to stop, Boyd said.

MySpace spokeswoman Jamie Schumacher said the company would not grant interviews concerning the security issues discussed in this story.

However, a document from a recent court case where MySpace sued a company for spamming peoples' profiles give some insight into the evolution of its security department.

The case, which went to arbitration, was settled last month. Scott Richter of Westminster, Colorado, was ordered to pay MySpace $4.8 million in damages and $1.2 million in legal fees in relation to an August 2006 spam campaign. Richter was accused of using compromised MySpace accounts to send unsolicited "bulletins" to thousands of MySpace users.

According to a document signed June 12 by arbiter Philip W. Boesch, MySpace as recently as two years ago "only employed two relatively junior staff employees to deal with the [spam] issues throughout the entire network."

Since then, the security staff has been increased to 30 or 40 employees, Boesch wrote. MySpace has also hired high-power leadership in April 2006. The site's chief security officer, Hemanshu Nigam, is a former computer crimes prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice.

All of the spam, trolling and other cybervandalism are against the MySpace's "Terms of Use Agreement." But during the Richter trial, MySpace's director of security and enforcement, E. J. Hilbert, highlighted problems in enforcing the document.

"As Mr. Hilbert testified, nobody reads it," Boesch wrote.

Saying Goodbye To XP Shouldn't Be This Hard

2008-06-30T07:24:00.000+01:00

Wave goodbye to Windows XP as the nearly seven year old operating system will finally be closing its doors because Microsoft has announced that it will no longer sell the operating system, according to reports.

Before you start having an aneurysm, there's a few key exceptions to allow you to get your XP fix beyond today. Versions of XP will still be on sale at smaller PC shops until the end of January and Microsoft will continue to produce a version of XP exclusively for low-end laptops like the Asus Eee. Dell and other PC manufacturers will also allow you to revert to XP when you buy high-end Vista systems.

Don't Hold onto the XP Past

Of course, you could always sign a petition, but really, what good will that do? The demise of XP is one that is long overdue and despite what the Windows faithful may think, there's other options out there. Apple's OS X has proved itself as a worthy contender and Linux is always waiting in the wings as a solid choice. And let's not forget about Vista.

Like that old and ratty teddy bear, it's time to hang up XP and move on. There's greener pastures out there, and they go by the name Vista, but the haze of years of bad publicity has made it hard to see.

Gates Says Yahoo Deal 'not Likely'

2008-06-30T07:00:00.000+01:00

A deal between Microsoft and Yahoo doesn't appear likely to happen in the future, Bill Gates said in a TV interview on Friday.

Gates was speaking with Tom Brokaw of the U.S. NBC network in an interview held to mark Gates' last day of full-time work at Microsoft. Beginning Monday Gates will spend some of his time at the company as non-executive chairman, but devote most of his time to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation charity that he and his wife established.

In the interview, a full-version of which was posted online, Brokaw asked Gates: "Do you think in a year from now, when you're down at the foundation offices, you'll look up at Microsoft and see Yahoo as a permanent wing of Microsoft, a part of it? Do you think the deal will get done?"

Gates replied: "No, I don't think so. But there are plenty of decisions ahead that Steve [Ballmer] will get to make about what he invests in, R&D, and what kind of deals he does. I don't think that one's likely but there are plenty of others that will get done and I'll look on with great respect."

Microsoft spent three months courting Yahoo earlier this year, but its bid to acquire the company fell apart in May when the two sides couldn't agree on a price. Since the two companies officially ended talks, there has been regular speculation that talks have continued behind the scenes although Gates' comments do signal that such talks, if they existed, are now over.

Microsoft buys “human” search engine Powerset

2008-06-30T00:09:00.000+01:00

Microsoft has agreed to buy Silicon Valley semantic search engine Powerset, say reports. According to Venture Beat, the deal could happen as early as next month with a price tag in the $100 million range - more than double the estimated value of the company. The Powerset search engine first debuted in May. It strives to be different than say Google and Yahoo by giving you more meaningful and smarter search results than other search engines. Using simple phrases, short questions, and of course keywords, Powerset is supposed to understand what you are looking for and help you quickly find the information you need. We reviewed the beta version of the search engine in May and we were not impressed.

Ever since Microsoft’s failed bid for Yahoo, the company has been searching for another way to compete with Google. Powerset’s natural language or semantic based technology would seem to fit in with Microsoft’s current strategy as we reported last month. Natural language search is one of several new concepts for the next evolution of search engine technology. As we discussed in May, Powerset is designed to “understand what you are looking for and help you quickly find the information you need” using short phrases, questions and keywords instead of the traditional Google method that takes keywords and ranks Internet links based on a website’s popularity.

EliteTorrents admin faces 10 years in jail

2008-06-29T15:56:00.001+01:00

26yo Daniel Dove has become the first person ever to be convicted by a jury for using BitTorrent to illegally distribute copyrighted material. It was on May 25th, 2005 that federal authorities first busted the famed EliteTorrents BitTorrent tracker site following the pre-release leak of a “Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith” workprint. Called Operation D-Elite, it was part of a nationwide federal crackdown against the illegal distribution of copyrighted movies, software, games and music over P2P networks. So far it’s resulted in the convictions of seven former leading members of EliteTorrents. Fellow admins, Scott McCausland, Grant Stanley, Sam Kuonen, and Scott Harvanek, all pleaded guilty to similar charges rather than take their cases to trial. Now Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich has announced that 26yo Daniel Dove has become the eighth person to have been successfully targeted by the Department of Justice and the first person ever to be convicted after a trial by jury in the US for using BitTorrent to engage in criminal copyright infringement.

The jury was presented with evidence that Dove was an administrator of the site’s “Uploaders,” who were responsible for supplying pirated content to the group. The evidence showed that Dove recruited members who had very high-speed Internet connections, usually at least 50 times faster than a typical high-speed residential Internet connection, to become Uploaders. The evidence also showed that Dove operated a high-speed server, which he used to distribute pirated content to the Uploaders. Dove’s sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 9, 2008 where he faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. At its height, EliteTorrents attracted more than 125,000 members and distributed about 700 movies, which were downloaded a total of 1.1 million times.

Google Quietly Tests Social Network

2008-06-29T15:49:00.001+01:00

Google has quietly begun limited testing of several new social features created for its iGoogle personalized start page. The updates include chat, activity streaming and a new interface for the gadgets offered on the start page.

Google plans to expand the rollout of the updated start page next month.

The new expanded iGoogle inteface, called Canvas, holds the various iGoogle gadgets for users. Google had renamed its personalized start page iGoogle and added support for a variety of gadgets for users to tap to customize the pages in May 2007.

Developers can take advantage of the Canvas interface to display more information and make their gadgets more interactive, noted Ionut Alex Chitu, a blogger at Google Operating System, a blog site that follows Google activities.

"The new iGoogle places the tabs on the left-hand side of the page, and you can expand the tabs to see the list of gadgets and status information, like the number of unread Gmail messages," Chitu noted. "There's a new chat feature borrowed from Gmail that lets you chat with your contacts while visiting iGoogle. That means iGoogle gets a sense of presence because you'll know when your contacts are online. Since the chat feature will be enabled by default, it's obvious that Google will be able to add options for sharing items and discussing posts with the contacts that are online."

Now that the site has added the new features, Google has gone further down the path of transforming iGoogle into a social site, Chitu added. Once Google provides support for the open standard OpenSocial in iGoogle - later this summer, according to the company - the transformation to a social site "will be complete," the blogger noted.

OpenSocial is a set of APIs spawned by Google and partner MySpace Inc. to allow developers to write applications that can be easily run across different social networking sites with limited customization.

Mashable blogger Kristen Nicole noted that up until now, Gmail was the closest thing the Google suite has to a "functional portal" where users could manage all Google applications.

"But the upcoming iGoogle start page is really going to be a very social portal that makes sharing easy, by way of Google Reader items, chat, and activity streams that keep you connected across the board," she noted. "Creating a hub for OpenSocial apps that reach across a number of social networking platforms will also be an interesting aspect of the new iGoogle start page that most application creators will want to take advantage of for outreach and broadcasting purposes."

The end of Windows XP next Monday

2008-06-29T11:45:00.001+01:00

Software giant Microsoft will stop selling its ubiquitous XP operating system on Monday. But that doesn’t mean the seven-year-old software won’t continue contributing to the company’s financial performance for years to come. Terminating XP was expected. It comes just 18 months after Redmond, Wash.- based Microsoft introduced a new, more advanced operating system called Vista. While the new system is powerful, upgrading means spending lots of time and money to rework applications designed to run XP specifically. As a result, some companies, including Microsoft partner Intel Corp, have balked at adopting Vista, preferring instead to continue using XP.

Though Monday will be the last day Microsoft sells XP or provides free support for the “hundreds of thousands” of computers that are estimated to run on it, the company has come up with a novel way to wring money from the aging operating system: It is killing XP but isn’t letting it die. One way Microsoft will still make money from XP is by charging to provide support. Because the software continues to be popular, Microsoft’s “extended” support program is sure to generate lots more revenue. Microsoft will offer the program at least through 2014. That will likely attract lots of big corporate customers. Meanwhile, Microsoft will make more money by supplying XP to computer makers Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc. and others. Because Vista has had trouble making headway in the corporate market, computer makers have asked for “downgrade rights” - the right to continue offering XP on their notebook and desktop computers after.

Heath Ledger praised for final role as the Joker in Batman: The Dark Knight

2008-06-28T22:50:00.000+01:00

The last performance of tragic actor Heath Ledger has been described as "the finest of his career".

A press screening of the new Batman movie The Dark Knight had viewers cackling along with Ledger's Joker.

Critic David Germain said: "Jack Nicholson's Joker was camp and clever. Ledger's Joker is an all-out terror."

Ledger died in January at the age of 28 from an overdose of prescription drugs in Manhattan.

Go to IMDb page

Information © IMDb.com

Insiders say Ledger could be in line for a best supporting actor Academy Award nomination.

The Joker masterminds abductions, assassination attempts,

murders and bombings, aimed at his enemy Batman, played by Christian Bale.

The Dark Knight opens next month.

Web 2.0 Goes to Work

2008-06-28T22:01:00.001+01:00

Web 2.0 has evolved from being just an environment for cultivating social networking among employees; it has now become a valuable business tool.

One example is in customer support, where a Singapore company, in the telecommunications industry, is just using a team of five to support its customer base of five million, according to Dr Patrick Chan, chief technology advisor, IDC. He was speaking at the recent Web 2.0 Digital Marketplace conference in Singapore.

"This (unnamed) company faced the challenge where many of its customers faced elementary issues that actually works up to about 70 per cent of the working time spent by the support desk team," said Dr Chan.

Champion Bloggers

The strategy was having a team of "champion" bloggers to run a cluster of blogs. Virtually acting as a 24-hour support group, these contributors would answer questions posed by users. Other users would also take part by contributing their answers. "The advantage is that the users can revert a lot faster than the support staff," added Dr Chan.

Also, the "champion" bloggers would blog about their experiences, which could indirectly drive sales for the business overall.

While web media companies typically give discounts of their own products and services to these bloggers as incentives, the key to retaining these contributors is the glory of recognition.

"Look at scienceblogs.com, they take a few of their champion bloggers to contribute all the content. To support these champion bloggers, the first thing is to recognize them. Give them the so called elite feel. Because societal behavior means one needs to be recognized, otherwise they will not contribute," said Dr Chan.

Crowd Sourcing

"One of the benefits of Web 2.0 is to do more with less, so how do you do that? It is to have that kind of crowd sourcing, where you identify and retain them," he added.

However, Dr Chan said companies looking to step into the Web 2.0 space should take note of one thing, which is the capacity to scale up as more bandwidth is taken up with increased traffic.

One tale of caution would be the recent Firefox 3.0 launch. An intense campaign pushing for a record number of downloads caused the servers to stop temporarily for a few hours due to over demand.

Another lesson learned is the competition between top football games Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) and the FIFA series. After years of lagging behind the PES in popularity, the latter finally overtook the incumbent.

The reason was that FIFA's online game version ran with virtually no bugs while PES' kept having issues. "Never release a product that is not ready. You must expect capacity where people will come in," said Dr Chan.

Imation Unveils Paperclip-Sized USB Drive

2008-06-28T21:15:00.001+01:00

Imation Corp. last week unveiled the Atom Flash Drive, a 1.5-inch-long portable storage device that is no larger than a paperclip and can store up to 8GB of digital files.

Weighing less than one ounce and measuring a half-inch wide, the Atom Flash Drive is the storage vendor's smallest USB flash drive, it said.

Versions of the tiny USB mobile storage device can store 1GB, 2GB, 4GB and 8GB of data. The drive is currently available at prices ranging from US$18 to $100 based on capacity.

Analysts say that as the prices of USB flash drives drop, the easy-to-use portable storage devices are gaining popularity among mid-size and large corporate customers to store, transport and share digital files among co-workers, business units and partners.

However, they also note that the technology can pose significant security risks if they are lost, stolen or are handled carelessly by employees. For example, a Ponemon Institute LLC survey of 691 IT professionals last December found that only 25% of workers would report a lost USB flash drive, compared to 78% who would likely notify IT departments about a missing laptop.

Imation's Atom Flash Drive provides password protection and drive partitioning capabilities to secure data on the portable device. The tool supports Microsoft Windows Vista and is also compatible with Windows Vista ReadyBoost technology. ReadyBoost enables the USB flash drive to serve as an additional memory cache when used with Windows Vista.

Bill Gates: Looking Back, Moving Ahead:

2008-06-28T21:11:00.001+01:00

Upcoming Games Boost Wii

2008-06-28T19:15:00.001+01:00

Just like its portable cousin the Nintendo DS, the Wii is starting to show it is indeed a "slow cooker" system that started life with a whimper, but will finish with a roar that includes features once only thought possible on the Sony PS3 and Microsoft Xbox 360.

Just this week, a series of third party announcements about the system's online play and shoehorning the Call of Duty 4 engine into what many detractors call the "GameCube 2.0" could have Wii detractors eating a bit of crow.

First, the Call of Duty 4 engine. During the official unveiling of Call of Duty: World at War this week, Wii version developer Treyarch confirmed that what gamers get on PS3 and Xbox 360, they'll be able to find on the Wii, too.

Said Treyarch senior producer Noah Heller in an interview with videogamer: "It's going to look better than any Wii game I've ever seen on the market."

But looks aren't everything, and Heller said that like its "next-gen" brethren, the Wii version will have a co-op mode and support multiplayer. "For all intents and purposes it's the same game," he said.

But how about that other hotly anticipated online-enabled 2008 title, Guitar Hero: World Tour? Ditto, said Vicarious Visions CEO Karthik Bala in an interview with GameDaily.

"Guitar Hero World Tour will be the first Wii game to offer downloadable songs through an in-game music store. Players can preview, purchase and download songs using Wii Points and we'll have new songs available on a regular basis," he said.

Better yet, the songs can go straight to an SD card (called the "Rock Archive") without issue. Online play for the Wii version is also experiencing an expansion, with eight-player head to head (2 vs. 2, 3 vs. 3 or Band vs. Band), cooperative or online career modes all available to the previously online-gimped system.

Dubai plans 'moving' skyscraper

2008-06-28T18:35:00.001+01:00

The world's first moving building, an 80-storey tower with revolving floors giving a shifting shape, will be built in Dubai, its architect says.

The Dynamic Tower design is made up of 80 pre-fabricated apartments which will spin independently of one another.

"It's the first building that rotates, moves, and changes shape," said architect David Fisher, who is Italian, at a news conference in New York.

"This building never looks the same, not once in a lifetime," he added.

The 420-metre (1,378-foot) building's apartments would spin a full 360 degrees, at voice command, around a central column by means of 79 giant power-generating wind turbines located between each floor.

The slender building would be energy self-sufficient as the turbines would produce enough electricity to power the entire building and even feed extra power back into the grid, said the Italian architect at the unveiling of the project in New York.

The apartments, which will take between one and three hours to make a complete rotation, will cost from $3.7m to $36m.

There are also plans to build a similar, 70-storey skyscraper in Moscow.

"I call these buildings designed by time, shaped by life," said the Florence-based architect, who has never built a sky-scraper before.

"These buildings will open our vision all around, to a new life."

The skyscraper will cost an estimated $700m to build and should be up and running in Dubai in 2010.

Newest Guitar Hero Features Aerosmith

2008-06-28T18:11:00.001+01:00

Activision ships the first artist-specific edition of the popular music game.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Aerosmith fans can finally get their chance to step into the shoes of Steven Tyler and Joe Perry as video game developer Activision Inc released its Guitar Hero: Aerosmith game on Friday.

Dozens flocked to the Hard Rock restaurant in Times Square to see the legendary five-member rock band debut the game and try out the latest Guitar Hero addition.

Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford even brought his sons to take a look at the band's creation.

The game features 30 of the band's most notable hits such as "Love in an Elevator" and "Sweet Emotion." It also includes songs from various artists Aerosmith performed and collaborated with over the years, including Run D.M.C.'s "Walk This Way" and "I Hate Myself for Loving You" by Joan Jett.

There is even a special guitar controller emblazoned with the band's red-and-white logo for hard core fans.

The game and guitar controller bundle for Microsoft Corp's Xbox 360, Sony Corp's PlayStation3 and Nintendo Co Ltd's Wii sells for $99.99, with an additional PlayStation2 version for $89.99. The game is also sold individually for each of the consoles and costs $59.99 and $49.99, respectively.

The Aerosmith game is the first Guitar Hero edition that focuses on an individual rock band. The previous three versions of the game featured various rock music genres that ranged from grunge, classic rock, metal, punk and '80s hits.

"This is an experiment for us," said Charles Huang, co-founder of Activision's RedOctane unit, which oversees the Guitar Hero franchise. "There are certain artists that have so much great music like Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen ... but we wanted to do something much bigger."

The Santa Monica, California-based company said Aerosmith's vast collection of rock hits and elite status in the music industry made the band the ideal choice for the new game.

"There's only a handful of bands that have that longevity," Huang said.

During the game's creation, band members spent two weeks performing in a motion capture studio in order for their video game figures to move exactly as the group performs on stage.

Activision is set to come out with a Metallica Guitar Hero edition in 2009, but declined to specify what month the game will be released.

The company will also release Guitar Hero: World Tour during the Christmas season, which will include a drum set and microphone in addition to the guitar controller. This version will rival Activision's biggest competitor "Rock Band," produced by Viacom Inc's MTV unit and Electronic Arts Inc

Call of Duty - World At War

2008-06-28T11:37:00.001+01:00

The newest addition to the acclaimed Call of Duty series has been announced! Call of Duty: World At War will be heading to next gen consoles later this year!

The sequel to the title GAME customers voted both the Game of 2007 AND the Greatest Game Ever, Call of Duty: World At War will take Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare's cutting-edge combat to new heights across an epic campaign set in the final missions of World War II.

From traversing the remains of Russia and the ruins of Berlin to tactical manoeuvres in the harsh wetlands of imperial Japan, Call of Duty: World At War presents unparalleled cinematic intensity on a worldwide scale. Play as a U.S. Marine or Russian Conscript across fronts from Europe to the Pacific, experiencing a new level of chaotic battlefield realism, playable for up to four players in online co-op!

With amazing new vehicles and weapons, unforeseen perils and a vastly improved multiplayer suite, Call of Duty: World At War will be THE must-have game for Christmas 2008.

Google plugs YouTube into Playstation 3

2008-06-27T22:14:00.000+01:00

To the surprise of no one, Google is now offering software that streams video, photos, and music from your PC to your television.

"In the old days, we used to watch a simple device called a television. Nowadays, all the stuff worth watching and listening to tends to be stored on or accessed through a computer," writes software engineer David Garcia on the Google Desktop blog. "To help remedy this, we are pleased to release the Google Media Server."

The Google Media Server - available here - is a free Windows app that sends media files to your TV via the Playstation 3 and other Universal Plug-and-Play (UPnP) devices. It works in tandem with Google Desktop, the desktop search tool that also runs various and sundry software widgets known as Google Gadgets.

With help from the Google Media Server, your TV can access videos, music, and photos stored on your PC, and naturally, it can tap straight into YouTube, the video-sharing site where Google hopes to serve an enormous number of advertisements.

Google is already streaming YouTube videos into living room via third-party devices like Apple TV and HP's Media Smart TV. And now it's reaching out for the Playstation 3 crowd.

But this is just a Google beta. And it may go nowhere. Judging from the Google Media Server discussion forums, the new app is hardly ready for prime time. ®

Visa taps into Facebook following

2008-06-27T21:08:00.001+01:00

Visa, the world's largest credit card network, is paying $2m (£1m) to promote its small business service on popular social networking site Facebook.

The company is giving $100 (£51) advertising credits to the first 20,000 US business start-ups that download its service via Facebook.

Visa's online service is designed to help small firms run their businesses more efficiently.

The company aims to tap into Facebook's global audience of 80 million people.

About 80,000 small businesses already have profiles on Facebook and thousands of Internet programmes have been developed specifically for the social networking site.

But the majority of these applications are based on social activities, such as gaming, listening to music and picture-sharing, rather than commerce.

The problem for Facebook, and its advertisers, is that few programmes generate any revenue.

Visa and Facebook say they think small companies that receive the advertising credits will then use the social networking site to market their services and products online in the future.

"That's certainly what we are hoping for," said Dan Rose, vice-president of product development at Facebook.

Bill Gates to retire from Microsoft on Friday

2008-06-27T07:51:00.001+01:00

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was set Friday for his last day of full-time work at Microsoft - the company he founded 33 years ago on a hunch that personal computers would become an integral part of everyday life. The world’s largest software company said that it was not planning any public events to observe the transition, though the change would be marked by internal events. Gates, 52, will continue to hold the title of non-executive chairman and work about one day a week at Microsoft. He intends to devote the rest of his time to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the wealthiest charity in the world, which is aimed at improving healthcare around the world and reducing extreme poverty. Founded with the vast fortune he made as Microsoft prospered, the foundation has an endowment of some 38.7 billion dollars with billions more expected to roll in as Gates transfers his massive personal wealth. Legendary investor Warren Buffet, currently the world’s richest man, has also pledged to transfer the vast majority of his wealth to the foundation.

Gates handed over his role as Microsoft chief executive to his long-time partner Steve Ballmer in 2000, when Gates became the company’s chief software architect. Under a carefully planned succession programme, Gate’s duties will be taken over by two top Microsoft executives. Ray Ozzie will be in charge of day-to-day management issues, while Craig Mundie will be in charge of long-term planning. The company, whose Windows operating system powers some 90 per cent of the world’s personal computers, has a market capitalization of about 260 billion dollars and employs more than 78,000 people in 103 countries. But even as its cash cow products of Windows and the Office productivity suite look set to continue their stellar earnings, Microsoft faces tough competition as Google’s online dominance threatens to cut into Microsoft’s core businesses.

3 New Mobile Downloads

2008-06-26T22:39:00.000+01:00

Wigan Athletic
This K800 wallpaper was published on Jun-26-2008 in the Teams category by 14rob26 The size is 19.52 kilobytes, and can be downloaded directly to your mobile device by directing your phones wap browser to wap.lasyk.net and entering 311119499 as the Wap ID. !-Download Now-!

Hayden Panettiere
This K800 wallpaper was published on Jun-26-2008 in the Celebrities category by 14rob26 The size is 27.41 kilobytes, and can be downloaded directly to your mobile device by directing your phones wap browser to wap.lasyk.net and entering 170119498 as the Wap ID. !-Download Now-!

Hayden Panettiere
This K800 wallpaper was published on Jun-26-2008 in the Celebrities category by 14rob26 The size is 26.94 kilobytes, and can be downloaded directly to your mobile device by directing your phones wap browser to wap.lasyk.net and entering 181119497 as the Wap ID. !-Download Now-!

Don't trust the battery life availability of your vista

2008-06-26T18:40:00.001+01:00

When I received my laptop it had a 2hrs battery, within a week it was 5mins (I never left it changing, it just died) now I was wondering why it didn't go off and the most random thing happened I unplugged it at 5.25 and it died at 6.18 but within that time all the screen shots surrounding this post happened.

Chrysler equips new cars with wireless internet

2008-06-25T20:21:00.001+01:00

Stuck in a traffic jam and really hoping you could update your Facebook page? You soon may be able to in a Chrysler. The No. 3 of the Big Three U.S. automakers will announce a wireless Internet-access option for all 2009 models on Thursday, according to various media reports. Costs of the option — called UConnect Web — and service subscriptions have not been finalized, according to Wired magazine and the Los Angeles Times. “It’s a notion of always wanting to be connected wherever you are,” Scott Slagle, Chrysler’s senior manager of global marketing strategy, tells the L.A. Times. “There’s a demand for that.”

The cars will receive 3G cellular broadband signals, then route them to any Wi-Fi enabled devices in or around the vehicle. Traffic-safety advocates are less than enthused. “Stop already!” Russ Rader of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety told the Times. “Clearly this is a problem. Our cars are becoming just another place to catch up on calls and now e-mail, and that’s a real safety problem.” It remains to be seen which models will get UConnect and what it will cost. Chrysler says it will be competitive with laptop wireless cards, and customers won’t be tied to long contracts.

Beatles edition of Guitar Hero to possibly appear

2008-06-23T22:44:00.001+01:00

Beatles music may soon be strumming a new tune via air guitar video games, according to a report in the Financial Times. Apple Corps and EMI, which respectively represent The Beatles’ business interests and ownership of its master recordings, have reportedly been in discussions with video game publishers Activision and MTV Games.Under a possible deal that could be worth several million dollars, users could put their air guitar to use while listening to The Beatles and playing Activision’s Guitar Hero or MTV’s Rock Band games, according to the report.

The move to push The Beatles’ music onto a new stage via video games could occur within the coming weeks, the Financial Times reported. Such a move would mark a change in embracing technology for The Beatles’ music, given that digital-use licenses for Beatles recordings are not yet available. The Beatles representatives, as well as the game publishers, declined to confirm whether a deal is on the horizon.

Sainsbury's web site back up and running

2008-06-22T18:58:00.001+01:00

The online arm of the supermarket chain took over 48 hours to fix the web site glitch

Sainsbury’s online ordering system is up and running but customers left without groceries over the period it took to fix the problem will have to wait until Saturday before the delivery service resumes.

The chain’s online operation was unavailable for just over two days due to a " technical glitch" which is thought to have affected around 20,000 customers.

In a statement, Sainsbury's said: "we have spent just over 48 hours fixing the problem and the web site has been thoroughly tested."

Customer information remained safe and the possibility of a hacking attack was discarded by the supermarket chain.

Guitar Hero III: Coldplay Track Pack - Available Today

2008-06-22T18:28:00.001+01:00

Xbox Live and Coldplay fans can have access to a trio of Coldplay tunes today. It will cost you 500 MS Points but Chris Martin is worth it. There have been a few other releases this month and you can check them out below.
Coldplay Track Pack (available June 19)

Price: 500 MS Points
Songs: "Violet Hill" (from the band's latest album, Viva la Vida), "Yellow" (from the album Parachutes), and "God Put A Smile Upon Your Face" (from the album A Rush of Blood to the Head).

Isle of Wight Track Pack (available June 12)

Price: 500 MS Points
Songs: "Shoot the Runner" by Kasabian (memorable performance from 2007 Festival), "I Predict A Riot" by Kaiser Chiefs (2008 Festival headliner), and "Problems" by The Sex Pistols (2008 Festival headliner).

Motörhead Track Pack (available June 5)

Price: 500 MS Points
Songs: "(We Are) The Road Crew," "Stay Clean," and "Motörhead" all performed by Motörhead.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock downloadable content is instantly playable and available in the Downloaded Songs set list in all game modes (Career, Co-op Career, Quickplay, Multiplayer, Practice, and all Online modes). Be sure to check Xbox LIVE® Marketplace regularly for the latest tracks.

AppleScript.THT: new virus for MAC OS X

2008-06-22T18:25:00.001+01:00

Security researchers reported last week that they’ve spotted a Mac Trojan horse in the wild that could compromise machines running Apple Inc.’s Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5. SecureMac, a Mac-specific anti-virus vendor, posted an alert last Thursday that its researchers had found a Trojan horse, dubbed “AppleScript.THT,” being distributed from a hacker-operated site where discussions of spreading the malware via iChat, Apple’s instant messaging and video chat software, were also taking place. The company classified the threat posed by the Trojan as “critical.” The malware exploits a recently publicized vulnerability in the Apple Remote Desktop Agent (ARDAgent), part of Tiger’s and Leopard’s Remote Management component. Composed as a compiled AppleScript, or in another variant, script bundled into an application, the Trojan leverages the ARDAgent bug to gain full control of the victimized Mac.

“[It] allows a malicious user complete remote access to the system, can transmit system and user passwords, and can avoid detection by opening ports in the firewall and turning off system logging,” claimed SecureMac. “Additionally, the Trojan can log keystrokes, take pictures with the built-in Apple iSight camera, take screenshots, and turn on file sharing.” SecureMac’s warning came one day after an anonymous reader disclosed a few details of the ARDAgent vulnerability on Slashdot.org, and on the same day that rival security vendor Intego provided more information about the bug. Malicious AppleScript, said Intego, can call ARDAgent, which then gives that script full “root” access to the system. Like any Trojan horse, AppleScript.THT does not spread on its own but relies on user interaction, such as downloading and launching, to infect a machine. Trojans can also be silently introduced on a computer if it’s injected after a successful attack using another vulnerability, such as a browser bug.

Teenager faces 38 years in jail for school hacks

2008-06-21T20:36:00.001+01:00

Graduation time is near for most students at Tesoro High School in Orange County California. However, two students are facing the prospect of beginning a prison term rather than walking across the stage to receive their diplomas. One of the teens faces the possibility of 38 years in prison.The two teens, Omar Khan and Tanvir Singh, have been charged with multiple felony counts. Khan’s chargers are by far the most severe with a total of 69 felony counts pending against him including identity theft, second degree burglary, computer access and fraud, removing and secreting a public record and altering and falsifying a public record.

The charges stem from Khan’s attempt to hack into his teachers computer using a stolen password to change his low grades to A’s and B’s. Khan is also alleged to have tried to install spyware to allow him access to the schools secure network remotely. In addition to attempting to change his own grades, Khan is also accused of trying to change the grades of 12 other students. Khan was found out when he requested a school transcript in order to appeal a denial of admission to the University of California for the coming fall semester. An investigation was started after school administrators noticed discrepancies in Khan’s grades. That investigation resulted in the officials finding Khan had original tests, answers and copies of his altered grades.

Is Quantum Cursed?

2008-06-18T22:25:00.001+01:00

Daniel Craig was taken to hospital a few days ago having sliced open a fingertip whilst shooting Casino Royale follow-up Quantum Of Solace, due for release this October.

It's not the first mishap to befall this behemoth of a Bond production. Only a week earlier, a laceration to 007's face, inflicted during an action sequence at Pinewood Studios and certainly not added by the make-up department, reportedly required eight stitches. A tumble during another scene had producers worried that the athletic new Bond had broken ribs.

Further to the trials of Bond himself, the production has seen three cars unintentionally wrecked including one valuable Aston Martin left at the bottom of a lake. A set caught fire at Pinewood early on in the shoot. Last but not least, a technician was stabbed by his own wife whilst working on the set in Austria.

So is Quantum Of Solace cursed?

Well it's hard to tell at this stage. But there's a rich history of cursed movies, the names of which will no doubt have been whispered between superstitious cast members on Quantum Of Solace. There are movies that have been washed out by monsoons, delayed by burning make-up and, in some cases, beset by unexpected deaths. We've gathered the best-known 'cursed' movies below.

15,000 Downloads!

2008-06-17T16:48:00.001+01:00

WOW thanks everyone who has downloaded our mobile content, we have now had more than 15,000 mobile downloads.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

2008-06-15T10:45:00.000+01:00

Released: 2009

Go to IMDb page

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Megan Fox, Rainn Wilson, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Peter Cullen, Isabel Lucas,

So after the amazing first film Transformers (2007) directed by Michael Bay, we can't wait for the second to be release. We are hunting down info and we have some photos of the filming of the movie, but whats the new film all about? Well... The battle for Earth has ended but the battle for the universe has just begun. After returning to Cybertron, Starscream assumes command of the Decepticons, and has decided to return to Earth with force. The Autobots believing that peace was possible finds out that Megatron's dead body has been stolen from the US Military by Skorpinox and revives him using his own spark. Now Megatron is back seeking revenge and with Starscream and more Decepticon reinforcements on the way, the Autobots with reinforcements of their own, may have more to deal with then meets the eye.

These are from the first day of filming, they had three military choppers flying all around the Lehigh River followed around by 2 police choppers to provide light for some of the scenes which was pretty intense.

Photos from the filming of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

App to Hide Your Desktop Icons

2008-06-15T09:20:00.000+01:00

Desktop neat freaks, here's an app for you! With the Desktop Tools app, you can hide all your desktop icons with just one click. The app resides in your system tray and when you click it, your icons are gone. Another click brings them back. The tool does the hiding/un-hiding really fast, so there is no waiting for it to "think" before it reacts. There's no flickering and no hit on the CPU, either. Despite being called "Desktop Tools", hiding and un-hiding icons is all it does. But for those of us who would rather stare at our lovely wallpaper instead (like the app's developer, who is also a photographer), this little app is a great tool.

Redesigned MySpace to be introduced next week

2008-06-15T09:00:00.000+01:00

MySpace will be given a Face~~book~~lift next week-scale redesign that will alter major components of the social-networking site. It said next Wednesday (18 June) is the big day when ~~saddos~~ users will be greeted with a new home page, navigation scheme, search engine and video player. "This is more than a facelift; we're changing the way people interact with the site and with brands," said the company. News Corp, which bought MySpace for $580m in 2005, said it hoped the revamp will help it attract a wider demographic because it no longer wants to be saddled with the Web 2.0-shattering perception that the site is only for teens and young adults. A deal with a major advertiser to take over the US MySpace homepage on the first day of the relaunch has been made. MySpace, the world’s most popular social-networking site, expects the changes to boost user engagement by making the site easier to navigate. MySpace is routinely criticized by users and observers for a layout that many consider visually strident and messy. Its members have many options to alter their profile pages, such as changing their background color, adding hyperactive animations, using fonts of many sizes and colors and plastering them with videos and photo slideshows.

As part of the redesign plans, MySpace has conducted surveys, performed usability tests and gathered focus groups. In addition to revamping the home page, MySpace is also changing the profile editor to make it easier for members to design and decorate their profile pages. The profile pages will also undergo renovations. Meanwhile, the search engine interface is getting a more streamlined layout, an enhanced relevancy algorithm and a tabbed results page including categories like people, MySpace site, Web, music and video. In addition, the video player is gaining new controls and support for Flash 9 full-screen mode.

Last month News Corp admitted that MySpace had missed its financial targets. The site will fall short of its annual revenue target of $1bn by 10 per cent, while third quarter revs dropped to $210m from $233m in the preceding three months. Meanwhile, MySpace’s rival Facebook is also busy these days toiling away at a major redesign of its member profile pages, which it has previewed and which it hopes to roll out at some point this month.

Wii, PlayStation outsell XboX 360 in May

2008-06-15T07:00:00.000+01:00

Sony scores another win against Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console in the month of May, while Nintendo reigns supreme with Wii and DS sales. Figures for the month of May show PlayStation 3 outsold Xbox 360. A mere 22k separated the two consoles, hardly putting a dent in Microsoft’s huge lead over the battle for total sales. 208k PS3 consoles were purchased last month and 186k Xbox 360s were snatched up by gamers. To date, 19 million Xbox 360s have sold worldwide compared against 13 million PlayStation 3s.

Unsurprisingly, both consoles were obliterated by Wii at 675k. Even Nintendo DS performed better than either PS3 or Xbox 360, generating more sales than both consoles combined with 452k handhelds sold. Nintendo pushed through over a million game systems during May, which nearly doubles PS3, Xbox 360, and PSP sales combined. Counting PlayStation 2 sales and Nintendo still boasted larger sales. Hand-in-hand with Wii and DS were solid game sales. Seven of the top ten selling games in May were on either platform. Mario Kart Wii took second place with 787k copies in a photo-finish behind the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV with 871k. Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of GTA IV were the only games to make the list for those consoles.

Nintendo sues Nyko for wireless nunchuck

2008-06-15T06:00:00.000+01:00

Nintendo is suing peripheral maker Nyko over a third-party wireless Wii nunchuck controller, Bloomberg reports. At a glance, Nyko’s wireless Kama Nunchuck (pictured) appears plenty different from Nintendo’s first-party Nunchuck controller, simply because Nyko’s offering is wireless, and Nintendo’s isn’t. But Nintendo believes that Nyko’s wireless Nunchuck infringes on its patents, nonetheless. According to Bloomberg, Nintendo is suing Nyko, claiming that the peripheral maker’s controller “wholly appropriates the novel shape, design, overall appearance and even the color and materials used in the Nintendo Nunchuk controller.”

Nintendo said Nyko has infringed on two design patents and its trademarks. The company is seeking an injunction on sales of the wireless Nunchuck and cash compensation. Nyko rep said that the company has “not knowingly violated anyone’s intellectual property,” and is currently looking into the claims. Best Buy’s website advertises the Kama Wireless Nunchuck for $35, while Nintendo’s first-party wired offering sells for $20. Nyko also sells a wireless adapter for the first-party Wii Nunchuck.

Some upcoming Changes

2008-06-14T10:00:00.000+01:00

Well we are back and we feel the blog needs some updating so we plan to update the layout with a new header and footer plus we are making changes to the toolbar. Whiles we do this we will be creating many more downloads for you; mostly mobile downloads. Also we will be making small tweaks which may make the blog inaccessible for small amounts of time just refresh the page and it should be fine.

!!!HOT!!! Hayden Panettiere

2008-06-14T09:30:00.004+01:00

!!!HOT!!!

Hayden Panettiere known as Claire from Heroes or Britney from Bring It On: All Or Nothing is the !!!HOT!!! new download we have created for you guys! Enjoy!

With over 5 downloads this K800 wallpaper was published by 14rob26 The size is 27.58 kilobytes, and can be downloaded directly to your mobile device by directing your phones wap browser to wap.lasyk.net and entering 511119445 as the Wap ID.
!-Download Now-!

Stella Artois brewer launches £24million takeover bid for Budweiser

2008-06-13T16:44:00.000+01:00

Stella Artois brewer InBev has ended weeks of rumours by finally launching a £24billion takeover bid for the US firm behind Budweiser.

A merger between Belgian firm InBev - which also makes Beck's - and Anheuser-Busch would create the world's biggest brewer, overtaking SABMiller, known for Peroni.

City experts reckon InBev will have to raise its bid but believe a tie-up makes sense. It would be the latest in a series of mergers in the brewing industry, which is having a tough time.

Scottish & Newcastle was recently swallowed by Carlsberg and Heineken.

And SABMiller is merging its US operations with Molson Coors.

The bid came as Stella agreed to sponsor an airship offering flights along the Thames for six weeks from July 10..

We are back!

2008-06-13T15:05:00.003+01:00

We are back and reopening our doors to downloaders around the world, enjoy our downloads and sign up for our Forum where our downloads are available.

5 Microsoft Office Ribbon Tweaks You May Not Have Known

2008-06-03T09:19:00.000+01:00

Thanks to some internal emails that were going around recently, we’ve discovered some great Microsoft Office ribbon tweaks, tips, and customizations. I’ll confess, I hadn’t known about all of these, but they certainly are handy:

Hide the Ribbon: To hide the ribbon out of view leaving only the tab names showing, just double-click on any tab’s name.
Customize the Quick Access Toolbar: By default, the Quick Access Toolbar has the “Save,” “Undo,” and “Redo” buttons on it, but you can change that. To do so, go to any tab and right-click on the little pull-down menu symbol next to the window title on any Ribbon app. Here, you have the option to click on “Customize Quick Access Toolbar.” From the menu that displays, you can add and remove commands from the Quick Access Toolbar to suit your preferences. Add your most frequently used commands and you can hide the ribbon to get more screen real estate without losing access to the commands you use the most.
Find Hidden Commands: Because the Ribbon is meant to bring more simplicity to working with Office software, there are some infrequently used commands that are not available on the ribbon or are just harder to find. To bring these back into view, follow the steps above in #2 to customize the Quick Access Toolbar and you can get access to these commands once again. A couple examples of hidden commands include Excel’s pop-up calculator and PowerPoint’s Advanced Document Properties, which lets you see how big the file is.
Customize the Quick Access Toolbar on the Fly: No need to hunt down the little right-click menu, though, you can just right-click any command on the ribbon and choose “Add to Quick Access Toolbar.”
Scroll Through Tabs With a Mouse Wheel: If you have a mouse with a wheel, you can scroll through the tabs if the cursor is over the Ribbon – very useful for quick switching.

Its bye for now

2008-03-17T23:01:00.001Z

At the moment we do not have time to carry on this project and as a result all the pages/websites will not be updated and may even close down

Sorry...

2008-02-19T18:45:00.001Z

We are expanding so this blog may not be updated for a while... Sorry

Downloads Will Become More Accessible In The Near Future

2008-02-15T13:46:00.002Z

I have began developing a free forum for a download center it will have all the downloads i offer and possible in the future limited time only downloads which will only be down loadable from the forum. More Info Coming Soon...

7000...

2008-02-09T17:33:00.000Z

Well i just want to start by saying thanks alot to all you who are downaloding my features. It may have been yestaday (im unsure ias i need not go on the net) But we have 7000 downloads in our mobile download so thanks alot!!! don't forget we create "For You and Your Friends."

Chinese New Year

2008-02-07T18:37:00.000Z

It's Chinese New Year Today and it looks like they will not be the only ones celebrating, our downloads are currently at 6,932 not many to go before 7,000 Can we do it before mid-night?

Hamilton 'Saddened' By Racist Abuse

2008-02-05T20:39:00.000Z

Lewis Hamilton insists racist taunts have not altered his opinion of Spain despite the abuse leaving him "sad". During Saturday's test at Barcelona, the McLaren driver was jeered and insulted by a few of the spectators, resulting in the FIA threatening sanctions against the Spanish GP...

"Don't be so gel us of him, he is a great driver. No one should be racist-ly taunted is not on!"

4 New Wallpapers

2008-01-30T18:35:00.000Z

4 New W880 wallpapers are now ready for download. They are of Rose McGowan, the actress who was in the hit TV show Charmed. (Quality Better On The Download Versions, Previews Not to size) View All Downloads Here

Its Official...

2008-01-24T23:34:00.000Z

Over 6000 Mobile Downloads! That is awesome, thanks everyone. Don' forget, we create "For You and Your Friends."

Brokeback Mountain Actor Heath Ledger Has Died

2008-01-23T19:19:00.000Z

Actor Heath Ledger was found dead at a Manhattan apartment Tuesday afternoon in what appeared to be a possible drug-related death; he was 28. The actor was discovered in one of the SoHo apartment's bedrooms at 3:31 p.m., when a masseuse arrived for a scheduled appointment and the residence's housekeeper went to inform the actor of the masseuse's arrival. (...) Read More...

R.I.P.

hi

2008-01-22T21:11:00.000Z

Well i have not been on here in over a week this is because i have been trying to design some create new wallpapers and PC screensavers. The Screensavers have taken a back set but the wallpapers are going ok they or not on the computer in which i am typing from so when i get on to my laptop i will try and get some of them uploaded. I'm sorry to say but im unsure at the moment when that will be but i will try and get it done as soon as possible. I have just check and we have almost 6,000 Mobiel downloads that is great thanks alot. Don't forget - we create "For You And Your Friends."

Stats

2008-01-15T18:17:00.000Z

Total Mobile Downloads: 5,351
Total Screensaver Downloads: 7
Total Mobile Uploads: 54
Total Screensaver Uploads: 1
Most Popular Mobile Download: Vanessa (717)
Most Poular Screensaver: Megan Fox (7)

5000 Downloads!!!

2008-01-11T19:28:00.000Z

5000! Wow thanks everyone! don't forget - we make downloads "For You And Your Friends"

Sorry but thank you.

2008-01-10T16:05:00.000Z

Sorry i have not recently updated this blog i have been having christmas off from designing. Thank you for all your downloads i have almost 5000 which is amazing because i only start this back in june/july and then only restarted in november. I now do many downloadable things, current stats:

Total Mobile Downloads: 4,850
Total Mobile Uploads: 54
Most Popular Mobile Download: Vanessa (658)

Total PC Downloads: 5
Total PC Uploads: 1
Most Popular PC Download: Megan Fox (PC Sceensaver) (5)

Thanks again...

Stats Update

2008-01-04T00:07:00.000Z

Total Mobile Downloads: 4,346
Total Screensaver Downloads: 5
Total Mobile Uploads: 54
Total Screensaver Uploads: 1
Most Popular Mobile Download: Vanessa (579)
Most Poular Screensaver: Megan Fox (5)

To Mark The New Year!

2008-01-01T00:00:00.001Z

To mark the New Year we have began to expand our downloads, we now do PC Screensavers. Our first is of Megan Fox. As with our Mobile Downloads any ideas are welcome. Have a great year everyone and don't forget that our downloads are "For You And Your Friends."

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T00:00:00.000Z

HAPPY NEW YEAR! HOPE EVERYONE HAS A GREAT ONE!

4000 Downloads!!!

2007-12-30T22:46:00.000Z

4000 DOWNLOADS!!! Thanks everyone, dont' forget to enjoy and tell your friends!

New Year is going to be a good one!!

2007-12-30T22:44:00.000Z

Plans to expand are underway and we have something to cheer about early.

..//14Rob26\\..

We Now Offer 115 Mobile Downloads!!!

New Downloads Add Today!

Creating unofficial downloads....

Busy

Windows Live Wave 3: Groups - More than just a stand-alone service

New Look Due for Windows Live Messenger

New Mobile Downloads

Retired Gates Predicts Software Revolution

Underestimated Changes

Software-Driven World

Innovating for the Better

New Mobile Downloads

Faces of Millions

It's nearly time for The Crate Escape

So once again its staring...

Released: 2008Go to IMDb pageInformation © IMDb.com So what is it all about...

I guess it's time for a trailer...

Google launches Lively, virtual world sim

12000 laptops lost every month in US airports

Sonic Unleashed

What’s it about?

Coolest feature?

When can I buy it?

Pioneer proudly pitches 400GB Blu-ray optical disc

Sony spin-off planning 2009 FED TV launch

No PAYG 3G iPhone in UK until Christmas

O2 starts 3G iPhone stampede - and runs away

Apple cuts price of MacBook Air by $500

Random Vid

Flawless Hamilton triumphant at sodden Silverstone

2010: the 5TB 3.5in HDD cometh

3 New Mobile Downloads

Polaroid launches a wallet-sized printer that prints your mobile phone snaps in seconds

It's back to the Eighties as parents are set to scramble for Rubik's Cube this Christmas

9/11 hero dog to be cloned

Competition

British Grand Prix preview

iPhone 3G is coming July 11.

iPhone 3G is coming July 11.

MCE Offers 6x Internal Blu-ray Drive for Macs

C4 chat plan for Moyles

More Xbox 360 Price Drops?

Nokia Adds Warner Music to Upcoming Service

AMD rolls out line-leading four-core Phenom

Boffins invent 42GB DVD

Mobile firms hit roaming deadline

MTV and EA officially reveal Rock Band 2

Quantum of Solace Trailer

Family Guy creator's sellout to Google almost complete

OOXML Projects Bolster Microsoft's Interoperability Efforts

Who's Who: Robert Carlyle tipped to replace Time Lord David Tennant

Anyone Herr an England fan?

We're in for 2010

Paleaaesina gets community service

iPhone will ship in green packaging

Japanese girls taught English by Nintendo DS

MySpace Users Struggle to Overcome Cybervandalism

Saying Goodbye To XP Shouldn't Be This Hard

Gates Says Yahoo Deal 'not Likely'

Microsoft buys “human” search engine Powerset

EliteTorrents admin faces 10 years in jail

Google Quietly Tests Social Network

The end of Windows XP next Monday

Heath Ledger praised for final role as the Joker in Batman: The Dark Knight

Web 2.0 Goes to Work

Champion Bloggers

Crowd Sourcing

Imation Unveils Paperclip-Sized USB Drive

Bill Gates: Looking Back, Moving Ahead:

Upcoming Games Boost Wii

Dubai plans 'moving' skyscraper

Newest Guitar Hero Features Aerosmith

Activision ships the first artist-specific edition of the popular music game.

Call of Duty - World At War

Google plugs YouTube into Playstation 3

Visa taps into Facebook following

Bill Gates to retire from Microsoft on Friday

3 New Mobile Downloads

Don't trust the battery life availability of your vista

Released: 2008

Go to IMDb page

Information © IMDb.com

So what is it all about...